Accident waiting to happen?

[Ron Gray]

A lot of talk about batteries shorting out (because they touch each other or the inside of an ammo box) but how do they do that if the connectors are shielded? Also talk about having so many batteries it’s easy to put a discharged one into a ‘plane, surely that applies to any battery you may pick up, simple answer is to check the charge with a tester before putting it in said ‘plane, soon establish the habit so it becomes second nature.

[Bob Cotsford]

I did think about the rare occasion that the cable insulation splits or moves exposing the conductors, or a balance cable comes adrift from the plug and I ended up getting some 2mm self adhesive vinyl to line my ammo boxes with.

[Peter Miller]

Posted by leccyflyer on 02/09/2020 12:48:33:

I've been charging at the field for more than 20 years, so it certainly isn't impractical for me.

Charging at home has up to now, for me, carried an unacceptable safety risk, since I encountered an exploding NiMh pack before Lipos were a glint in their daddy's eye. I've seen a lipo fire at the field and personally know two people who have had lipo fires at home, luckily without very serious damage to their property, other than the destruction of mulitple lipo packs

I believe that it is possible to put sufficient mitigation in place to make charging at home acceptable to me, but I'm sure I will also continue to charge at the field, between flights.

Well when your cars are 200 yards across a field from the pits

A) it is too far to lug a big battery or

B) to far to go back and forth to recharge a battery

You try that when you are jusy coming up to 83

AS I said,I have a table outside in the open air and an extension lead fro the charger so it shopuld be pretty isolated.

[MattyB]

Posted by Ron Gray on 02/09/2020 13:24:13:

A lot of talk about batteries shorting out (because they touch each other or the inside of an ammo box) but how do they do that if the connectors are shielded?

As per Bob's post above, it's unlikely but not impossible - when Murphy's law strikes and some insulation splits / something conductive gets into the box and lodges in a connector etc it's better to be safe than sorry, especially when it costs so little to insulate the box and/or connector.

Posted by Ron Gray on 02/09/2020 13:24:13:

...Also talk about having so many batteries it’s easy to put a discharged one into a ‘plane, surely that applies to any battery you may pick up, simple answer is to check the charge with a tester before putting it in said ‘plane, soon establish the habit so it becomes second nature.

We were commenting on the example in post 1 of this thread - clearly keeping your batteries like that at the field is not a best practise! We are basically agreeing here - you use a batt tester every time which is fine, but I prefer to have two liposacks (one marked charged the other discharged) and move packs from to t'other via the plane. This is because balance leads are vulnerable to wires fracturing over many cycles and they are fiddly to resolder, so minimising the number of times they are connected and disconnected is worth doing.

Either way the system used is unimportant as long as it works for you and you can apply it consistently. Flying on flat packs ain't no fun (only done it once many years ago and don't plan on doing it again&hellip!

Edited By MattyB on 02/09/2020 14:48:34

[Andy J]

Well at least this thread spurred me into buying some XT60 blanking caps today along with more connectors so I could standardize the connection method across my various models.

[David Hall 9]

I'm guilty of storing batteries in this way at home, where they are grouped into size ranges.

It's just developed like that.. Thanks for the prompt, I've ordered a metal tool box that has several trays. That should be a better home storage solution than the cardboard boxes I presently use. At the field, I keep them in a padded case (camera case).

Incidentally, have you all seen the test videos of "LiPo safe bags"? They may be not much safer than that plastic tray.

[Ron Gray]

Personally I use ammo boxes to cart bats to and from the field and to store some of them in the workshop. I do however have a lot of bats stored on a shelf in the workshop, albeit not bundled together. My ammo boxes are not insulated in any way, and whilst I'm not too concerned about it, for a few pence it would make sense for them to be!

[Jason Channing]

HI

Edited By Bob Le Marquand on 02/09/2020 17:46:10

[Jason Channing]

WORKS WELL FOR ME.

Edited By Bob Le Marquand on 02/09/2020 17:45:58

[stevejet66]

Dangerous, I remember once two young kids messing around with batteries, I was over the park one day watching two lads, One was drinking battery acid and the other eating gunpowder, The police were called and the two youths arrested, Apparently the one had been let off and the other one had been charged

[leccyflyer]

Posted by Peter Miller on 02/09/2020 14:06:53:

Posted by leccyflyer on 02/09/2020 12:48:33:

I've been charging at the field for more than 20 years, so it certainly isn't impractical for me.

Charging at home has up to now, for me, carried an unacceptable safety risk, since I encountered an exploding NiMh pack before Lipos were a glint in their daddy's eye. I've seen a lipo fire at the field and personally know two people who have had lipo fires at home, luckily without very serious damage to their property, other than the destruction of mulitple lipo packs

I believe that it is possible to put sufficient mitigation in place to make charging at home acceptable to me, but I'm sure I will also continue to charge at the field, between flights.

Well when your cars are 200 yards across a field from the pits

A) it is too far to lug a big battery or

B) to far to go back and forth to recharge a battery

You try that when you are jusy coming up to 83

AS I said,I have a table outside in the open air and an extension lead fro the charger so it shopuld be pretty isolated.

Whatever works for you is fine by me Peter. Please note that I didn't say that charging at the field was going to be practical for you, just that it wasn't impractical for me.

FWIW my e-flight mentor, who was in his eighties and taught me much of what I know of electric flight operations, used to charge at the field too, and had his two stacked 85ah leisure batteries on a sack trolley to transport them the 15 yards or so from the drop off point to the first table in the pits. Our cars were parked >100m from the end of the pits.

Happy flying.

[Stephen Smith 14]

I store and carry my lips like the ones in the picture, nothing wrong with living dangerously once in a while, keeps the mind active

[leccyflyer]

Posted by David Hall 9 on 02/09/2020 16:29:37:

I'm guilty of storing batteries in this way at home, where they are grouped into size ranges.

It's just developed like that.. Thanks for the prompt, I've ordered a metal tool box that has several trays. That should be a better home storage solution than the cardboard boxes I presently use. At the field, I keep them in a padded case (camera case).

Incidentally, have you all seen the test videos of "LiPo safe bags"? They may be not much safer than that plastic tray.

That is why it is important to use the pukka Lipo Sacks, not the cheap knock offs, some of which have been shown to be as flameproof as a chocolate fireguard.